It started as I walked back from the event at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"I called my colleagues at the BBC Washington bureau to tip them off. Soon after that, I published the blogpost. The BBC’s North America editor Mark Mardell retweeted the link. Within 24 hours, my blog registered 17000 views."

Then it spread...

"At breakfast on Friday, Ed Pilkington from The Guardian called from New York to confirm the facts - after contacting me via the blog. At lunchtime on Friday, Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy magazine online had the first quote from Mr. Crowley confirming that this was his personal opinion."

...and spread

"Shortly afterwards, President Obama was asked by ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper whether he agreed with Crowley’s comments. That day both the Guardian and the BBC published pieces on their websites."

Thousands of readers came to the blog through links

"They began coming purely via social media tools - Reddit and Twitter. Then via the websites of big media brand names - primarily the BBC and the Guardian. Hundreds at a time came from new media outposts like the Huffington Post, Salon and The Daily Kos."

After the resignation, The New York Times finally weighed in with an editorial

"Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, committed the classic mistake of a Washington mouthpiece by telling the truth about Private Manning to a small group (including a blogger): that the military’s treatment of Private Manning was “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” He resigned on Sunday.

Far more troubling is why President Obama, who has forcefully denounced prisoner abuse, is condoning this treatment. Last week, at a news conference, he said the Pentagon had assured him that the terms of the private’s confinement “are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.” He said he could not go into details, but details are precisely what is needed to explain and correct an abuse that should never have begun."